C'est La Vie
by xotakux2002x
Summary: That's life. The story of prep school, night clubs, homework, carnivals, football, bad ideas, worse ideas, car rides, friendship, loneliness, family, dating, and a couple kids named Itachi and Kisame that have navigate through all this. kisaita and more
1. Prologue

"Itachi!"

Itachi Uchiha, a seventeen-year-old student of Konoha's elite Sarutobe Magnet School and star pupil, closed his locker and looked over his shoulder to see his cousin, Shisui Uchiha, running towards him at top speed. Seeing who it was, he turned to face Shisui, leaning lazily against his locker as he adjusted the buttons on his coat, and waited for the teen to reach him. It wasn't unusual for Shisui to approach him at school, but the way he was absolutely sprinting towards Itachi gave the weasel some cause for concern. School had let out fifteen minutes ago, and already the pristine halls had been cleared of most students who weren't engaged in one of the school's many extra-curricular clubs or organizations. Shisui would normally be out in the parking lot himself by this time, talking to some of his friends and making plans before leaving; Itachi was normally one of the last to leave, usually staying after to speak to some of his teachers or attend to club business.

Shisui slowed down a bit once he realized that he'd gotten his cousin's attention, but the teen was still pretty winded by the time he reached Itachi and needed a minute to gasp for air, bent forward with his hands on his thighs. He was sweating too, though part of that was probably because he was bundled up in a winter coat and hadn't thought to take it off before he chased down his cousin. "Hey, thanks for waiting," Shisui gasped a moment later, finally catching his breath and looking up at Itachi. "I just wanted to make sure you were still on for studying calculus this weekend with the guys and me," he explained, brushing a string of hair out of his face.

When the two of them stood this close, one could easily see the familial relationship between the pair. Both Uchiha boys looked remarkably similar, each with deep black hair and eyes, but that was as far as the similarities went. Itachi was the more thoughtful and reserved of the two, far more likely to spend his days with his nose buried in a book than talking with another person. He barely talked, rarely talked, and despised socializing except with a few choice people. In contrast, Shisui was perpetually smiling in a manner that typically ranged from sweet to mischievous, complementing his friendly and outgoing personality. He was the kind of person who'd never met a stranger; the polar opposite of his cousin. None of these things really mattered to Itachi or Shisui; despite their differences, the pair got along with each other fairly well. Coming together to study, then, was not out of the question for them, or even all that unusual.

Still, Shisui's apparent desperation to get hold of his cousin still caused Itachi to quirk a brow; _that_ was all his cousin had been running down the hall over? A study party? "You couldn't have texted me?"

Shisui rolled his eyes. "Well I could, but a certain _someone_ takes forever to answer my messages! Besides, it's easier to just track you down and ask while we're both in school, so why bother with a text?"

Itachi resisted the urge to roll his own eyes and instead tied a wool scarf around his neck, before he began walking down the hall towards the back door of the building. As expected, Shisui followed along beside him, pulling on a wool hat from within the depths of his coat pockets. "Will your friends actually study this time?" Itachi inquired, trying to keep too much venom from leaking into his voice.

Shisui at least had the decency to look sheepish at the weasel's inquiry; the last time he and Itachi had put together a study group with some of Shisui's friends, the others had spent more time texting and doodling than actually working on their homework, and his cousin had understandably been rather put out by the time things were wrapped up at the end of the night. "Yeah, none of us did so hot on the last exam and their parents are riding them pretty hard. Not like getting ready to send them to reform school or anything, but Ikki is going to get his car privileges taken away if he doesn't get at least a B on this test. Mom's pretty adamant about me getting an A, but I think she'd settle for a B. Your folks, though…"

Shisui didn't need to say anything more. Both cousins knew that Mikoto and Fugaku Uchiha, Itachi's parents, were adamant about their son being at the top of his class. They knew how smart Itachi was, and were quite proud of how their son had dominated all of his school subjects from an early age. It didn't necessarily occur to them that once Itachi hit high school, the difficulty levels in most of his subjects had spiked considerably; calculus was a completely different beast than basic algebra, and writing a book report on a Hardy Boys adventure book was nothing compared to a college level essay on a Shakespeare play. That was part of the reason for Itachi's reluctance to work in a study group; any time that his group members wasted was time that he couldn't afford to waste, unless he wanted to risk a lecture from his parents about keeping up his grades.

"Look, I told them that this is the last chance they'll have to work with someone who actually knows the math and can explain it better than our teacher," Shisui assured him. "If they start bugging you or flaking, we'll kick them out. I promise."

"Hn."

"What does that even mean?"

"I'll give it a shot," Itachi agreed, making his cousin smile. The two finally reached the door and pushed it open to step out of the building, only to walk straight into a fierce winter wind. They shivered at stopped for a moment to adjust themselves, Shisui turning up the collar on his coat and Itachi pulling up his scarf to cover his face. It was a particularly cold day in January, and this had been a pretty rough winter. Small mountains of snow were piled up at the edges of their school parking lot, waiting for warm weather to come and melt them as the students trekked slowly along the sidewalks towards their cars, being careful not to slip on any patches of ice. "That's all I promise," Itachi went on as he and Shisui made their way towards their cars.

"Awesome! And while we're talking about it, do you want to come over tonight and work on those questions for English? Mom's making chicken and dumplings."

Itachi shook his head as they arrived at his vehicle: a small silver car sitting in the middle of the nearly-empty parking lot. It was expensive at his parents' behest, low-key at his own, and devoid of bumper stickers or any interior décor to keep it "professional-looking" as his father would say. Shisui's vehicle, a slightly less expensive SUV, was sitting a few spots over from his. It was a bit more personalized with a couple bumper stickers and a star-shaped air freshener dangling from the mirror, and although Itachi had never felt a strong desire to decorate his own car, he always felt a small pang of jealousy when he saw Shisui's.

"Aww, why not?" Shisui whined as his cousin climbed into his car and quickly turned on the heater.

Itachi rolled down his windows (frowning at having to expose himself to the cold again) and simply said, "I'm working today."

"Oh yeah, mom told me you got a job! You're gonna be tutoring at another school, right?"

"Yes, and I need to go before I'm late."

While others might have felt put out by Itachi's tone, Shisui had known his cousin long enough not to take any offense. Itachi just liked to be prompt to things, especially when he was going somewhere or meeting someone new for the first time. So rather than getting upset, he waved to his cousin and called out "See you Saturday Itachi!" while walking towards his own car.

Itachi rolled up his window, adjusted his radio, and took a minute to quietly sit in his car and listen to some no-name rock band that was playing on the nearby college's radio station. He'd learned that it was important to pause at the end of a stressful event, let himself unwind for a short time, and then move on to what would inevitably be the next stressful event in his life. He'd budgeted his time to give himself ten minutes in the car; on a good day he could spare maybe fifteen, but with the weather as bad as it was he didn't want to push things and risk getting caught in traffic. Ten minutes would have to do.

In that ten minutes, Itachi closed his eyes, leaned his seat back, and did his best to let go of everything that had happened that day. The stress of his classes, the trials of researching colleges, the annoyance at looking over his father's notes from the last company board meeting, missing his friends that weren't at the same school as him, and everything else contributing to his current headache just melted away…

But ten minutes later, Itachi's eyes were open as he reset his seat and pulled out of the school parking lot. He needed to drive across town, get through his job, make his way home, finish all his schoolwork, and then collapse in his bed by a reasonable hour. Sighing, the Uchiha turned up the music and prayed that his exhaustion wouldn't get the better of him today.

-n-

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you wanted to look at it) Itachi's exhaustion had given way to other things by the time he pulled into the parking lot of Konoha Senior High School, and collapsing before the day's end no longer seemed so imminent. Unfortunately, one of those things that had cropped up during Itachi's drive was annoyance, and of all the emotions that a tutor should feel towards their students, annoyance was probably the least productive and certainly not the best to show when making introductions. But as Itachi Uchiha walked into the school's main building, feet echoing loudly on the tile floor as he ventured towards the school library ("straight down the main hallway and then a right through glass doors, you couldn't miss it," he'd been told), a small yet constant wave of annoyance was all he could muster up.

It had nothing to do with his student, at least not yet; in truth, this was Itachi's first day on the job. He'd never met the person he was going to be tutoring, and only knew their name and the list of classes they were struggling with. He might end up with a lousy student, or he might strike gold and find the perfect subject for his tutoring lessons; really, there was no way to know at this point. So why the annoyance? Well, if Itachi was being honest with himself, he was annoyed that he had to be a tutor at all.

Everything had started when his mother had been talking with an aunt and made an off-hand comment about what a good teacher Itachi was for his younger brother, Sasuke, whenever the boy was struggling with his schoolwork. Somehow word had gotten around to friends and family, and before Itachi could even get a word in himself, everyone in the family was convinced that he was the greatest thing that had happened to teaching since Socrates. His parents had suggested (pushed and nagged, really), that he look into working for a tutoring service because he would clearly be amazing at it, aside from the fact that it would be one more gold star to pin on his college resume. His own school had no need for his tutoring services since it was full of either gifted students or not-so-gifted pupils whose rich families could afford private tutors of their own. At least that much had worked out in the Uchiha's favor. Honestly, Itachi wouldn't have wanted to tutor his own classmates even if the opportunity had presented itself. Study groups were one thing, but one-on-one tutoring? The embarrassment at having to tutor one of his peers would probably kill him or his pupil, if not both. So instead, a little sleuthing on his part (mostly to get his parents to shut up about it) had resulted in Itachi finding a tutoring service that not only worked with public schools but would also **pay** him for his time. If he didn't follow through with this tutoring idea, his parents would no doubt push him into some other extra-curricular; at least this way he could make a little pocket money himself.

That didn't mean that he was happy to be here, he thought as he finally found a set of double glass doors sunk back in a deep doorway amongst the green, cinder brick walls of the school hallway. Truthfully he'd rather be at home in his room killing time on the Internet, at least for a bit before he had to dig into his veritable mountain of homework, but neither of his parents were particularly big fans of lazing about, especially when it came to their prodigy of a son. And so his relaxing would have to wait for a few more hours, until he finished up his tutoring and then headed home to finish his own homework. With any luck, the tutoring portion of his day wouldn't be too mentally taxing for him; he was still recovering from sixth-period advanced chemistry.

Footsteps that had thudded loudly in the hallway were now muffled by the brown carpet of the school library. Itachi walked straight back, passing several short bookshelves and two rows of computers before he came to the study area in the back of the library, composed of several old wooden tables with four beat-up chairs surrounding each of them. Most of these tables were empty, but the second to last table towards the back had two people sitting by it. One of them was a middle-aged man with tan skin and short brown hair, who was talking with a muscular teenage boy that had dark blue hair. The former was dressed in khakis and a button-up shirt, while the latter had on a pair of raggedy jeans and a plain (but tidy) navy t-shirt. As Itachi approached, the man looked up and stood, extending his hand before introductions had even been made. "Itachi Uchiha?"

"Hn," the Uchiha replied with a polite nod as he took the hand and shook it. "You're Mr. Iruka then?"

"Yes. So nice to finally meet you, after all those emails," the man stated with a polite smile. "The tutoring company had nothing but good things to say about you, so we're incredibly happy you could make it all the way out to us."

Itachi thought about politely disagreeing, insisting that this school was only 25 minutes from his own, less than 15 if you had your own car (like he did), but that might turn in to a conversation, and if there was one thing that Itachi did not feel like starting this afternoon, it was small talk and idle chattering. So he simply said, "No problem," and peered around Iruka with feigned curiosity. "I'm tutoring you?" he asked the other student.

The boy with blue hair grinned sheepishly at Itachi, offering a smile that was full of unusually pointy teeth. "Yeah, I'm Kisame Hoshigaki. It's nice to meet you."

Itachi nodded once to Kisame, and then turned his attention back to Iruka. "So, we'll be all right to use the school library here?"

"Yes, I've taken care of it with the librarians," Iruka explained. "Our school lets out a little later than yours at 3:30, and pretty much everyone is cleared out by 4. The library stays open until 4:30, and the rest of the school is locked up by 5. If you really need to keep working past 4:30, we have a couple teachers who might let you borrow their classroom, but since you're coming for tutoring twice a week…"

Itachi nodded, understanding that Iruka was asking without asking that he and Kisame try to be done and out of the school by 4:30. That shouldn't be too difficult; Kisame was having problems with a junior-year writing class, not vector calculus. "We'll be fine," he assured the teacher as he stepped past him and set his backpack down on the table near Kisame's navy-colored messenger bag.

"Perfect! The tutoring service will handle your payment on every other Thursday, and since you know where the library is and who you're tutoring, I'll go ahead and let you get started. Good luck!" And with a wave of his hand, Iruka was gone.

"Thanks in advance," Kisame said as Itachi sat down beside him. "I need to pull my grades up in a couple classes, or I'm off the football team. Coach is pretty laid back about a lot of things, but grades aren't one of them."

"Hn," Itachi replied, only half-listening. He'd assumed it was something like that; the other tutors at the company had warned him that when a school called requesting "the best tutor you've got," oftentimes it was because they were hoping to pull off a miracle and bring up a struggling athlete's grades just enough that they could avoid academic probation on their team. He'd also been warned that the athletes could be a massive pain in the ass to deal with, but so far Kisame seemed all right.

"Oh, Iruka said you wanted to see a writing sample from me," Kisame said aloud, as if just remembering he was supposed to have something for his tutor to look over. "Um, let me get it out of my bag…"

Itachi watched quietly, somewhat amused and mostly annoyed, as Kisame pulled out notebooks, workbooks, scrap paper, a water bottle, a crumpled paperback novel, a battered pencil pouch, half a granola bar, and finally a stapled essay from his messenger bag. The poor thing was crumpled quite badly, and its time in the messenger bag had managed to severely smudge the pencil writing on the front sheet. Kisame sheepishly set the essay in front of Itachi and offered a string of apologies as he attempted to stuff the other items back into his bag. He needn't have bothered; Itachi was barely listening, having immediately picked up the essay to read over it once Kisame had given it to him.

Honestly, it wasn't terrible. The writing was somewhat juvenile, like something a middle-school student might turn in, but at least the argument was somewhat coherent and not totally riddled with grammar and spelling mistakes. This was something Itachi could work with; the writing couldn't be fixed overnight, of course, but Itachi could easily see the potential in Kisame, and was certain that a few months would bring his writing up to grade level.

"So, what do you think?" Kisame asked, somewhat nervously despite the smile on his face. "Am I a lost cause?"

Itachi handed the essay back to the other teenager and shook his head. "Well you're not going to win any Pulitzers with this, but it's not bad."

Kisame's small smile grew into a much larger grin at Itachi's quip. "Ah, well. Print journalism's dead anyway."

Itachi rolled his eyes, a slight smile tugging at the corner of his lips for a moment. No, best not to look too amused right now; Kisame might try to make conversation and get friendly with him instead of doing any work. "Can you tell me what part of writing causes you the most trouble?"

"The whole thing?"

Itachi took a calming breath. Annoyance would not be productive, he reminded himself. "Can you be more specific?"

"I dunno, just, I feel like I understand what the essay prompts are asking me to write, and I know what I want to say in my head, but when I try to actually write it out all the ideas get jumbled together, I forget half of what I was planning to say, and then whatever I actually end up turning in to my teacher is a hundred times worse than what I actually wanted to write. Does that make sense?"

"Mostly." That at least sounded like a problem Itachi could work with, and one that Kisame seemed willing to remedy. Itachi had been slightly worried about getting some jock that thought he could bribe (or worse, bully) Itachi into doing all the work for him, instead of admitting that they had a problem which only hard work and effort could fix. Speaking of which, Itachi should probably go ahead and start working with Kisame. "Ok, the first thing you'll want to do is make an outline…"

Kisame, to his credit, was a pretty good student. He took notes, tried to follow along with what Itachi was saying, and although he'd definitely need more help (probably at least for the next several weeks), Itachi felt like they'd made real progress by the time 4:30 rolled around. He caught a librarian walking around and shutting down computers, and decided that it was time for him and Kisame to leave. "Let's leave things here and pick up again on Monday," he said, already moving to grab his bag from the table.

Kisame nodded, and if he was a bit startled by Itachi's apparent eagerness to take off, he didn't show it. Instead, he stuffed his notebook and pencils back into his bag (rather messily, Itachi noted) and was standing to go a moment later. It was only when Kisame stood that Itachi was really able to appreciate their size differences. He'd noticed immediately that Kisame probably had about fifty pounds of pure muscle on the Uchiha, but he was also almost a head taller than Itachi as well, and quite a bit wider too. His bag was absolutely stuffed, but he didn't even seem to notice the weight on his shoulders; he probably could easily lift twice as much without breaking a sweat, Itachi realized. "You good to go?" Kisame asked, scooting in his and Itachi's chairs.

Itachi nodded and began walking towards the exit, noticing Kisame was following closely but not making any effort to converse. He felt somewhat guilty then, and realized that he should probably make an effort to be friendlier, especially with such a nice student and having just met him, but he was too worn out today to even think about it. Kisame, for his part, didn't seem to take offense and didn't try to make any small talk either; he'd pulled out his phone almost as soon as they'd left the library and was currently texting someone.

The two walked in silence until they got to the school parking lot, where they had to part ways. It was then that Itachi noticed his car appeared to be the only one left in the open parking section; all the other cars left were parked against the side of the building in an area labeled "faculty only." Unable to suppress his curiosity, he turned to Kisame and asked, "Do you have a ride home?"

The shark shook his head and pulled up a thick scarf that he'd extracted from his messenger bag at some point during their walk out of the school. "Nah. Normally I catch a ride home with someone, but everyone left ages ago so I'll probably just walk. It's not that far, and I need the cardio anyway."

Itachi's eyes scrunched up slightly as a gust of wind slammed into the two of them, and he felt bad for Kisame. Regardless of how far away Kisame lived (even if his claims of being close to home were to be believed), the walk would still be miserable in this weather. He thought for a moment, and as Kisame opened his mouth to say something, presumably bidding Itachi farewell, the weasel inquired, "Do you want a lift?"

Kisame looked a bit surprised, but another gust quickly killed any thoughts that he may have had about turning down the Uchiha's offer. "That'd be great, if it's not out of your way. It's 3242 Pine Street; I can guide you-"

"I should be able to find that," Itachi cut in, already walking to his car. Pine Street was a little under two miles from here, give or take, and while an athlete like Kisame might have no trouble with that walk on a nice day, the January weather they were dealing with today would make such a trip miserable. He quickly unlocked the car and started the engine, giving it time to warm up while Kisame climbed in and got situated.

"Nice car," the shark commented, sliding his seat back a good foot. He was taller than Itachi's last passenger, and the messenger bag at his feet took up plenty of leg room itself.

"Thanks," was all Itachi said in reply. As they were leaving the parking lot and getting on the main road, he wondered if he should've said more; like that it was a present from his parents, that he'd gotten it for keeping a perfect 4.0 up to his junior year of school, that he knew it was kind of plain but his dad didn't want it to get too "frivolous-looking" inside and he didn't know what he'd even decorate it with if he could. But all of those things seemed pointless to say, and besides, hadn't he wanted to avoid talking to Kisame just five minutes ago?

The shark didn't seem to mind how quiet Itachi was being, and actually turned up the radio a bit so they could listen to the music. The drive took a bit more than ten minutes, thanks to a couple of annoying traffic lights, but soon enough they were pulling onto Kisame's street. The next time they were stopped at a light, Kisame turned his head to speak to his tutor. "Hey, Itachi?"

"Hn?"

"Not to be a pest or anything, but would you mind if I got your number? I need to have a rough draft of a paper to turn in by Tuesday, but we have practice tomorrow and a game Saturday night, so if I'm gonna get anything done before tutoring next week I might need a few pointers over the weekend."

Itachi considered the shark's request for a moment, and then said, "Sure." There couldn't be much harm in giving Kisame his number; besides, if it was just a rough draft and not a final copy, hopefully Kisame wouldn't get too stressed and bother him all that much. He waited until the shark had his phone out and quickly recited his phone number; a moment later, his own phone beeped from a text, letting him know that Kisame had sent him a message. Good timing too; a few seconds after that, Kisame was pointing out his house (a small ranch-style home) and Itachi was pulling into his driveway. Kisame gathered up his bags, said, "Thanks for the lift, Itachi!" and quickly exited the car. Itachi waved goodbye to him, made sure the shark was able to get into the house (no point in taking him home if Kisame was just going to be locked out in the snow) and then left.

His own home was a good 25 minute drive from Kisame's, and by the time he actually got home it was past 5. He came in, briefly said hello to his mother in the kitchen while she worked on dinner, and then walked straight upstairs to his room. Once there, he dropped his bags on the carpeted floor, crossed the room to his full-sized bed, and collapsed onto the warm duvet cover, wishing he could just sinking into the warm, comfy bliss of his mattress for a few hours. He shut his eyes and took a few deep breaths, relaxing himself before he'd have to start on his homework. Surprisingly, it was rather easy to de-stress from tutoring. Kisame had been a great student: very polite, not too social, and he was actually someone Itachi hadn't minded being around. They weren't likely to become the best of friends anytime soon, but as far as tutoring students go, the weasel had lucked out.

He gave himself 10 minutes to unwind before getting back up and dragging himself across the room to his desk, near where his bag had been thrown. Today's homework consisted of calculus and chemistry problems, notes on a chapter from his history class, and reading three chapters from the book his English class was reading. If he was lucky, everything could be knocked out in four hours.

Not that Itachi could work straight through everything for four hours, of course. He got about an hour's worth of work done before Mikoto called him downstairs for dinner, and even eating quickly (and chugging down a cup of coffee afterwards) he still lost almost half an hour of work. Calculus and chemistry couldn't be done back-to-back without completely frying his brain, so after knocking out history and calculus he took a shower break before delving back into work. Chemistry took a bit longer than he'd been hoping, and by the time he got to reading for English it was almost 10. Sighing, Itachi shut off his desk lamp, turned on the lamp beside his bed, and then crawled under his covers to read. He probably needed to take notes during this for the class discussion tomorrow, but that could wait until morning. He'd just read it for now and try to formulate his questions in the morning when he was eating breakfast.

At least the book was interesting, and Itachi was able to finish his reading assignment by 11. By that point, his brain was fried, his eyes were begging to close, and all he wanted to do was sleep. But first, he took a moment to check his phone for messages.

There were three tonight, which was an unusually high number for Itachi. One was Kisame's, whose number Itachi quickly saved to his phone. The next, sent shortly after Itachi got home, was from Shisui, and was simply a textual reminder of their conversation today about the study group on Saturday. The final one was from Deidara, a friend of his. It read, "Come over tomorrow night! Sasori and I miss you :)" and had been sent while Itachi was having dinner.

That text actually made Itachi smile a bit. He hadn't seen his friends since last weekend, and since tomorrow was Friday he'd be free from school obligations for a few days. His parents likely wouldn't mind; they loved Sasori to pieces, and assumed that as long as Itachi was with either Sasori or Shisui, he wouldn't get into too much trouble. He quickly texted back, "Sounds good, I'll come over after school," and locked his phone. He was reasonably certain that Deidara would reply quickly (his phone was perpetually glued to his hand), but reading that would have to wait until morning. As soon as he'd set his phone down, his head hit the pillow, and Itachi was out like a light.


	2. Chapter 1

At precisely 6 o' clock in the morning, Itachi's alarm began blaring the most annoyingly chipper ringtone on his phone (which was why it was so good at waking him up). His hand slid out from beneath the warm covers of his bed and fumbled around the nightstand before finally wrapping itself around the phone and shutting it off. He yawned and stretched his limbs slowly before opening his eyes and staring at the ceiling. Itachi knew that he needed to get up; at the very least, he needed to shower and brush his teeth before breakfast, but he also had to make notes for English class that he hadn't compiled last night before he went to sleep. Yet at the same time, his bed was so perfectly warm and cozy on a winter morning like this, and surely he could spare just another five minutes before he had to get up…

With a sigh of resignation, Itachi sat up and peeled the covers off of himself, shivering as the cool air of his room hit him full force. He couldn't risk sleeping in, especially since he hadn't even asked his parents if he could go over to Sasori's house tonight. Itachi needed to seem completely and utterly on top of things like he always did, so neither parent would have any objection to his taking a night off. And unfortunately, part of being on top of things meant having to leave the comfort of his incredibly warm and comfy bed. With these somewhat depressing thoughts to motivate him, the Uchiha sleepily stumbled his way into his private bathroom to shower, stripping along the way.

In order to keep up with the demands of his life, Itachi had mastered a certain multi-tasking system for his morning routine after careful years of trial and error. His uniform would be set out with clean underwear and socks while the water was warming up in his shower. Once the water was at the optimum temperature, Itachi would hop in with his toothbrush, wash his hair, and then scrub himself down with a bar of soap and brush his teeth while the shampoo/conditioner mix was soaking into his hair. His hair would then be rinsed, and while it was in a towel he'd dry off the rest of him and get dressed. Next it was time to jot down his English notes, and once that task was completed he'd blow-dry his hair to the point of being slightly damp instead of sopping wet. By this point, it was 6:45 in the morning.

Looking at the clock on his phone, Itachi stuffed his books into his bag and exited his room, hurrying down the stairs for breakfast. The brief pick-me-up he'd gotten from the shower was quickly wearing off; he'd need some coffee to get through the rest of the day. Fortunately for him, both he and his father were terrible caffeine addicts, and Mikoto always had a pot brewing for the two of them.

Itachi walked into the kitchen and was greeted by the delicious smell of bacon that was pleasantly sizzling in his mother's favorite skillet. He walked into the kitchen and dropped his bookbag on the hardwood floor with a rather audible 'thump!' before taking his seat at the table beside his father, who currently had his nose buried in his tablet and was scrolling very rapidly through something. Probably notes from a meeting, Itachi decided, or else some news company's report on a competitor. Either way, it was not something Itachi was particularly interested in investigating this early.

Mikoto had either heard her son come into the room or set down his bag, because a moment later she was hurrying over to give Itachi a cup of coffee and a small plate of bacon. "Morning honey," she said with a bright smile. "Sleep well?"

"Hn," Itachi grunted as he pulled his coffee closer and began dumping spoonfuls of sugar into the cup. Mikoto didn't mind, having spent years dealing with Itachi's aversion to mornings before his coffee, and immediately spun around to go back to her stove, intent on making the rest of her family's breakfast. The woman was an absolute goddess in the kitchen, and delighted in using her cooking powers to feed her husband and sons. "I'm making omelets today; you boys want bacon and cheese like usual?"

"Hn," came twin grunts from the table, one from Itachi and one from Fugaku.

Mikoto rolled her eyes but dumped the whisked up eggs into her skillet before adding the meat and cheese. Cooking their omelets in bacon grease might not be the healthiest choice in the world, but at least it would be tasty. "Where's Sasuke?" she wondered, looking over her shoulder to the empty spot at the edge of the table near where she usually sat.

"I'm sure he'll be down soon," Fugaku said, eyes still glued to his tablet. Itachi didn't say anything, but instead took out his phone and shot Sasuke a quick text threatening to eat his younger brother's omelet if the teen didn't come downstairs soon. Minutes later, the rest of the Uchiha family heard the distinct thumping sound of Sasuke rushing down the stairs, bursting into the room to ask, "Are there still omelets?!"

"Not so loud, Sasuke," Fugaku grumbled. Itachi also frowned at his brother's actions; Sasuke had inherited his mother's morning person attitude and had no doubt been wide awake for nearly an hour. Likely, the only thing that consistently prevented him from beating Itachi to breakfast was his inability to organize his personal items and have everything gathered up for school by the time the others had crawled out of bed to find breakfast.

Itachi was broken out of his musings by the sight and smell of a delicious omelet that was placed in front of him, followed by his father receiving one of his own. "I'll make yours now, Sasuke," Mikoto promised with a smile. "I just didn't want it to get cold waiting for you. Honestly, I'll never understand what you spend all morning doing in your room…"

Fugaku grunted, presumably agreeing with his wife's scolding, but the effect was somewhat ruined by the fact that his cheeks were stuffed full of bacon and omelet. Itachi ate his in a slightly more dignified manner, though no less quickly than his father. By the time his younger brother was being served (at 7:10, Itachi noted) he was done with breakfast. At this point he'd normally bid his family farewell and dart out the door, but today he still had something to do. "Father?"

"Hm?"

"Sasori invited me over tonight. I've already made accommodations for my weekend assignments, and I don't have any club activities to worry about-"

"Honey, it's fine," Mikoto cut in. "Your father and I were just discussing how hard you've been working; a break would be good for you. Isn't that right?"

Fugaku nodded as he took another sip of his coffee. "Be safe, don't do anything reckless, have your phone on you."

Itachi nodded; it was the same speech that his half-asleep father gave him every time he requested to go to a friend's house. Perhaps it seemed a bit curt, but the speech that wide-awake-at-dinner Fugaku would give him was much worse than what drowsy-during-breakfast Fugaku could muster up. That speech was always full of lines about being responsible and acting like a good role-model for Sasuke, so Itachi had learned over the years to make requests in the morning when Mikoto was likely to have quick enough reflexes to grant him permission before Fugaku could even think to protest (never mind form a lengthy lecture). With that, he said a quick goodbye to his parents, grabbed his bag, ruffled Sasuke's hair, and was out the door before another word could be said on the matter.

With traffic the way it was at this hour, Itachi made it to school by 7:45. This gave him fifteen minutes to get to his locker, work his way to his first period class (advanced German), and get settled in at his desk. He pulled out a notebook and an audio recorder; the last half of the class was immersive, so he liked to have a recording of the spoken German that he could review later and practice himself. It was difficult, but at least the teacher made things fun. He'd be here for fifty minutes, and then it was off to history, English, economics, lunch, calculus for an extended period, and finally chemistry to finish out his day, broken up by nothing but a few ten minute breaks between courses. Exhausting, but necessary for the high school junior if he wanted to get into the most competitive senior courses next year.

Itachi's musings were abruptly interrupted by his phone beeping; apparently he'd gotten a text, and thank god it had happened before class. Itachi didn't want to imagine how the teacher would react if his phone had dared to go off during the middle of a class lecture. He quickly silenced it, and then checked the message. To his surprise, it was from Kisame. " _Thanks for yesterday again. I think it really helped me_."

Itachi paused, a bit surprised by the text. Honestly, even though Kisame had asked for his number, he'd half-expected the jock to completely forget about him until their next tutoring session unless Kisame needed some emergency help with an essay. He glanced up at the clock; two minutes to the start of class. That was enough time to send a message of his own, and he quickly texted back, " _You're welcome. Good luck this weekend."_ After that, he pocketed his phone and adjusted his notebook again, wanting to look prepared when his instructor arrived.

-n-

By lunchtime, Itachi was in dire need of another cup of coffee. Fortunately for him, the school seemed to understand that the only thing keeping their students upright was caffeine, and had installed vending machines that dispensed tea and canned coffee in the cafeteria. The lines were always long; some students even chose to forgo waiting in the lunch lines so they would have a better chance of getting their beverage of choice before it ran out.

Fortunately for Itachi, his economics classroom was very close to the cafeteria, and he was usually able to get to the cafeteria fast enough that he was one of the first in line for a drink. Today was no different; he'd managed to get a can of coffee as well as a basket of chicken nuggets by the time he arrived at his usual table, sitting with Shisui and a few of his cousin's friends.

They were nice enough people, but Itachi was usually so worn out by this point in his day that all he wanted was half an hour of peace to eat and just not think. The boys were good-natured about this, and typically left Itachi to his own thoughts while they ate and chatted about whatever happened to be going on in their lives at that point.

However, as Itachi nibbled on the chicken nuggets and sipped at his coffee (not an incredibly tasty combination, but it did the job), he briefly wondered if Kisame might have sent him another message. He glanced up to make sure there weren't any lunch monitors looking his way (there weren't; one was talking with another student about something in the student's textbook that was on the table, the other was in line for tea). Once he was sure the coast was clear, he pulled out his phone to check, assuming that he was just being silly for expecting any more texts.

Surprising him once again, Kisame had sent him two more texts. One came immediately after Itachi's last message, simply stating, " _Thanks, we'll need it_." The next one had been sent just ten minutes ago, and read, " _Please tell me you can help with algebra too!"_

Itachi quirked a brow and replied, " _What's the problem_?"

There was a pause as Itachi waited for Kisame to receive his message. Then, there was a small icon in the bottom of his screen indicating that Kisame was typing. At last, he received the jock's reply. " _2-x/2+x = x^2 - 5. Solve for x. HOW?!"_

Itachi felt a slight smile tugging at his lips; there was something that he found rather funny about the mighty football player being brought low by a simple algebra problem. Then again, at least Kisame had the guts to ask for help when he didn't understand something, so Itachi probably needed to reign in his delight at the jock's suffering. Carefully, he began typing a series of texts to help Kisame solve the problem. It would have gone a lot faster if he was actually there, but given that the pair of them were at completely separate schools, texting would have to do.

Itachi ended up spending most of his lunch helping Kisame with his math, and was startled to hear the bell ring to signal the end of the period. He chugged the rest of his coffee and sent Kisame a quick text to let him know that lunch was over so he wouldn't be able to help the jock anymore. After that, his phone went right back into his pocket, his tray was dumped, and Itachi was on his way to calculus.

-n-

3 o' clock finally rolled around, and Itachi was completely done with the day by the time the final bell rang. He grabbed a few books out of his locker, stopped by his German teacher's classroom to pick up a few supplemental readings that the man had offered him earlier in the week, and then shuffled his way out of the school with the rest of the student body. Eventually he managed to get to his car, but then had to wait for a good fifteen minutes while the rest of the parking lot cleared out. 200 juniors and seniors took a while to make their way out of the two tiny exits their parking lot had, and trying to make your way off campus in the middle of the rush was just asking for someone to accidentally rear-end your vehicle.

While waiting in the car, Itachi turned on his radio and pulled out his phone. Kisame hadn't texted him again, so Itachi assumed that the jock had managed to survive algebra. Putting that thought aside, Itachi turned his attention to his friends and shot Deidara a text. " _School's out, I'll head over soon_."

" _Bring milkshakes! Sasori wants chocolate and I want strawberry_!" The reply was almost instantaneous; Deidara must have the day off. Also, given the short amount of time between Itachi's text and Deidara's request, Itachi had to wonder if Deidara had actually checked whether or not Sasori even wanted a milkshake, never mind one of the chocolate variety. Besides, who even asked for a milkshake in the middle of January?

Nevertheless, Itachi found himself sending a reply to Deidara promising that he would bring milkshakes with him when he arrived. He switched over to an internet window and then and searched for a nearby drive-thru that sold milkshakes; he really didn't want to have to find a diner, go in, and ask for a couple of milkshakes to go. By the time he located a fast food restaurant that was still selling milkshakes in the dead of winter, the parking lot had cleared out enough for him to be able to leave.

-n-

Thirty minutes later and Itachi had arrived at Sasori's apartment building with a tray of milkshakes carefully balanced on top of his school bag. He parked in the complex's guest lot and then extracted his bag and milkshakes from the car. He winced as the wind caught him square in the face; with his hands full, he couldn't pull up his scarf for protection. Thus Itachi ended up awkwardly fast walking towards Sasori's building, trying to get out of the cold as quickly as he could without sending their beverages toppling to the pavement below.

Another of the building's tenants was fortunately walking out the front door when Itachi was coming in, and she was kind enough to hold the door for him. He thanked her and quickly hurried inside, breathing a sigh of relief when he came in contact with a wave of heat coming out of a nearby air vent. Now free from the danger of frostbite, Itachi shuffled down the linoleum-covered hallway at a leisurely pace and gently pressed the elevator button with his elbow. After that, it was a quick ride up to the fourth floor, down another hallway (this one at least had carpet), and then he was at the door for Sasori's apartment. Itachi took a minute to adjust his cargo, realized there was no way to free either hand without losing control of the shakes, and then knocked on the door with his foot.

He heard a muffled voice from within, followed by footsteps padding over the hardwood floor that he knew covered all of Sasori's apartment. Then there was a metallic click as the door was unlocked, and suddenly the door opened. Deidara had answered today, and he greeted Itachi with a wide smile. "Milkshakes!" Itachi rolled his eyes and handed the drinks to Deidara; once his arms were free, he followed his friend inside and quickly dropped his bag near the doorway.

Deidara's outfit quickly confirmed Itachi's earlier suspicions that his friend had had the day off. Deidara's shoulder-length blond hair was completely down, whereas on work days he had it pulled up into a half-ponytail. The tall blond was wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt that had flour spots in several places that his apron didn't quite cover; given how heavenly the kitchen smelled, he must have been cooking. Oh, and the fluffy pink bunny slippers he was currently padding around in were a good indicator that Deidara hadn't set foot outside of the house all day either.

Deidara shuffled into the kitchen, where Itachi could see a few loaves of banana bread cooling on the counter. The blond set down the milkshakes and then turned to give Itachi a hug. "Hey, un! How's it going?"

Itachi hugged him back and shrugged before plucking his milkshake out of the carrier. "All right. Where's Sasori?"

"In the living room, un. Go on ahead; I have one more loaf in the oven I have to check on, un," Deidara explained as he grabbed a bright blue oven mitt off the top of the stove. "Can you take him his milkshake?"

Itachi agreed and grabbed the chocolate milkshake in his free hand, leaving one behind for Deidara. He walked through the short entryway of the apartment, nearly tripping over several plastic bags lying in the middle of the hallway; Sasori and Deidara must have recently made a trip to a craft store. He finally got past these obstacles and entered the living room, where he found Sasori curled up on the massive sectional couch that the pair of roommates had set up in front of the TV.

Sasori was currently buried under several large, fluffy blankets, and all that was sticking out was his shock of messy red hair and a single sweater-wearing arm that was holding the remote for the TV. He glanced to the side upon hearing Itachi walk into the room and smiled at his friend. "Hey Itachi."

"Hey," Itachi replied as he made his way across the room and gave Sasori his milkshake and a small hug. It had been something that Deidara introduced when he burst into their lives: greeting and bidding your friends farewell with a hug. Itachi didn't do it with any of his friends outside of this small group, but he had to admit, he truly enjoyed these brief moments of contact with his friends. "So, did you actually want a chocolate milkshake?"

Sasori rolled his eyes as Itachi took a seat on the couch beside him, burrowing under another blanket. "Deidara's been baking all day, and it made the apartment sweltering. I told him to open a window or something, but he said it would just drive up our heating bill. I think you just happened to text him at a point when milkshakes seemed like a good idea for cooling off to him." Itachi nodded; that sounded like something Deidara would do. "So, Itachi; what do you feel like doing? We're up for anything."

That was the great thing about being with Sasori and Deidara. They were so willing to do whatever Itachi felt like, especially after a long week at school. Sometimes they'd watch bad movies, sometimes they'd play games together, and sometimes they'd put on some random talk show in the background while the three of them just chatted about completely mundane topics. It was the most relaxing part of Itachi's week, and definitely something that he never planned to take for granted. "Is there a show tonight?"

Sasori thought for a moment, and then called out, "Deidara?"

"Yeah?!"

"Is the show this week or next?"

"Next, un! They've still got to repair the stage after they tore out the rotten wood, un!"

"Well, that answers that," Sasori stated bluntly. "And if you don't mind, I think Deidara wants to stay in tonight."

"The bunny slippers led me to that conclusion," Itachi deadpanned.

"Not exactly built for inclement weather, are they?"

"Neither is Deidara."

"Point taken. Hm, there's a Dracula movie marathon on later, but they just added a few more of those murder mystery shows to Vulu, and Deidara loves those…"

"I could go for mindless drama," Itachi suggested as he grabbed a nearby pillow and flopped over onto his side, burrowing into the couch. Already he could feel himself melting into the cushions, and when he tugged a blanket down from the back of the couch to cover him, it was absolute bliss. Why did he ever leave this apartment?

"Excellent." Sasori used the remote to change the input on the TV and then grabbed a nearby controller for their console, turning on the device and quickly pulling up their streaming app. "Hopefully there are at least a few episodes that Deidara hasn't already watched a dozen times; he's so horrible at spoilers."

"But at least we're never stuck watching a bad episode," Itachi countered.

"You know, sometimes I'd actually like to _see_ those supposedly bad episodes instead of just taking his word for it," Sasori stated huffily. "Oh well."

"What's with all the banana bread?" Itachi asked, changed the subject. "Is it for an event, or…?"

Sasori gave his friend a pointed look. "Or are we allowed to stuff ourselves silly on it, you mean." Itachi couldn't even attempt to look guilty, making Sasori smirk. "Knew it. As far as I know, Deidara just noticed that we had a few bananas that were spoiling, and he went a bit overboard with cooking afterwards. And considering how badly he's been monopolizing the kitchen today, I damn well better get at least one loaf-"

"Not until they're done cooling, un!" Deidara snapped as he stuck his head out of the kitchen doorway. He'd removed his apron and was brushing off a bit of flour from his clothes as he walked into the room; his last loaf must have finished cooking. "Otherwise it'll fall apart in your fingers, un!"

"I know," Sasori said. "You've been lecturing me all day about it." Itachi couldn't say that he was surprised; as long as he'd known Sasori, the redhead had had a slight issue of digging into homemade food as soon as he could get his hands on it, which sometimes ended with him eating undercooked bacon or soupy-soft cookies. Probably why Sasori didn't seem too upset about Deidara's scolding.

Seeing that Deidara was coming into the living room, Sasori smiled and loosened the blankets around him, holding a flap open for the blond. "Are you done for now?"

"Yeah," Deidara answered as he kicked off his slippers and burrowed into the blankets next to Sasori, pulling the flap back around the two of them. "Give it twenty minutes and we can eat." Sasori smiled and gently kissed Deidara on the forehead, making the blond smile and tilt his head up for a proper kiss on the lips.

Oh right, **that** was why Itachi still went home sometimes. Because staying here would mean be constantly exposed to a pair of lovebirds that were sickeningly adorable enough to induce vomiting in someone with a weaker stomach than he. But at least with Deidara present, their fun could begin.

The three of them spent hours on the couch watching TV together, only getting up once in a while for food or drinks. They talked a little bit during the more mundane episodes, and Deidara was even willing (albeit grudgingly) to let them watch an episode that he swore up and down was the worst one in the entire season.

At some point, Deidara turned the volume on the TV down to a dull murmur, and Itachi's eyes began to droop. He knew that Sasori and Deidara wouldn't mind him sleeping over; he did it so often that Sasori now made jokes about an Itachi-shaped depression in the couch. After making sure the alarm was set on his phone to get him up at a reasonable hour, Itachi tucked himself in and drifted off to sleep, completely and utterly relaxed.


	3. Chapter 2

The smell of fresh coffee managed to wake up Itachi before his alarm could go off. He slowly blinked his eyes open and stretched on the couch, grunting as he managed to pop his back in several places. In retrospect, falling asleep on an old couch might not have been the best choice he could have made last night.

A glance across the room revealed that Deidara was still asleep, and didn't appear likely to wake up anytime soon. The blond usually worked in the afternoons, so it wasn't too surprising to Itachi that he was still sleeping at (here he looked at the clock on his phone) 7:38 in the morning. Itachi, on the other hand, needed to try and keep at least a somewhat regular sleep schedule for himself even during the weekend, and so he forced himself to get up. It was with a heavy heart that he threw off the blanket wrapped around him and groggily got to his feet.

Sasori must have heard the sound of his friend shuffling towards the kitchen, because by the time Itachi got there his redheaded friend had extracted a chipped coffee mug from a cabinet and was pouring a second cup of coffee. Itachi took a seat in a battered wooden chair across from where Sasori's own coffee mug had been set, and thanked his friend in a whisper when Sasori set down the mug in front of him and pushed the milk across the table. "Here, before you fall asleep again," Sasori commented as he sat back down and took a sip of his own coffee.

"Hn," Itachi grunted in thanks, adding a healthy splash of milk before blowing on the steaming-hot drink and taking a tentative sip. He frowned and quickly set it down; still too hot.

Sasori rolled his eyes at his friend but made no comment. "Any reason you're up this early?"

"I need to go home and change clothes," Itachi stated, stirring his coffee with a spoon that was lying near Sasori's mug. If his friend had a problem with the theft, he didn't say. "Shisui and I are doing a study session tonight. Calculus exam."

Sasori nodded in understanding. "So glad I don't have to bother with that anymore. Maybe it's because this is only my second semester, but college seems so much easier than high school sometimes."

Itachi nodded, unable to think of anything to say to that. He was just a junior, so he had another year and a half to find out whether or not Sasori's statement was true. A big part of him doubted that his trip through higher education would be so simple, even if he was planning to get a finance degree like Sasori. While Sasori's grandmother was fine with the redhead taking his time and focusing on just one degree, Itachi's parents would certainly push the teen to get a Master's, possibly a doctorate, and to try and test out of as many undergraduate level courses as he possibly could so that he could double (or even triple) degree during his undergraduate tenure. He'd probably be carrying a full course load every semester; not to mention all the research projects and internships he'd definitely be pushed to sign up for, and a job to pay his bills…

Itachi took another sip of coffee to try and distract himself. He had more than enough going on in his life right now without future potentials stressing him out too. Besides, now that he was more awake, he probably needed to act a bit social towards Sasori. "What about you and Deidara? Anything happening today?"

"Grandma's coming over this afternoon," Sasori stated after another sip. "She'll probably want to stay for dinner, so Deidara and I will need to go to the grocery. Not to mention cleaning up the living room and hallways, since I'm sure she'd immediately notice if we didn't scrub them down."

Itachi thought for a moment. "Do you think that's why Deidara did so much cooking yesterday?"

You could see the realization dawn on Sasori's face a moment after Itachi had spoken. "Damn it…" he muttered, head bowing as he rubbed his temples in agitation.

"It could be worse," Itachi commented between sips of coffee. "Some people run off or drink when they get nervous. Deidara just bakes."

"He doesn't need to be nervous!" Sasori insisted. "Grandma likes him; if she didn't, she would never have let him move in with me."

"You're probably right. But Deidara is…"

"Deidara," Sasori finished with a sigh. "And there's nothing I can do about that."

Itachi nodded and finished his coffee with a final gulp. He wished he'd taken a little longer, if only to drag out the time he could stay here with Sasori and Deidara. On any other Saturday, he'd probably be able to stay with them all morning, and he and Sasori would either talk or watch TV with the volume turned down low while Deidara slept, and then once the blond woke up they'd eat brunch and find some way to make a perfectly mundane weekend amazing-

" _Stop. Just stop."_ Itachi had to break out of his daydreaming, before he talked himself out of today's responsibilities. So instead of hanging around until Deidara woke up, Itachi took his mug to the sink and quickly rinsed it out. He hugged Sasori goodbye, grabbed his things, and was out the door before you could say, "See you later, Itachi."

-n-

"It's gotta be Clements!"

"You're kidding me, right? He's lost the last two fights in a row, plus he's 2 pounds lighter than Richards!"

"Two pounds doesn't make that much difference-"

"Um, yeah, in the world of professional fighting it kind of does!"

Itachi rolled his eyes as the two MMA enthusiasts in his study group bickered between themselves. They'd gotten almost half an hour's worth of work done before they'd stumbled across a practice problem that involved measuring the speed at which a fist would hit a target. Itachi had been ready to completely skip it, assuming that a problem like this was probably a physics exercise that had just gotten mixed in with one of their calculus study guides, but two of the boys in the group (Ikki and Max? Mark? Something like that) had used it as an excuse to go off on a tangent about some major fight that was going to air later that night. Shisui, bless his heart, was at least trying to steer them back towards the work they were supposed to be doing, but apparently the argument of Clements-vs-Richards would not die easily.

Absentmindedly, Itachi pulled his phone out to check and see if Sasori and Deidara were up to anything, before remembering that Chiyo was visiting. Sasori's grandmother was sweet enough, but very strict about her 'no cellphones during family togetherness' policy. So even if he tried to text them, it was extremely unlikely that he'd actually hear anything from either of his friends.

His eyes settled on the last text he'd gotten from Kisame, thanking him for the help with algebra yesterday. He briefly considered texting Kisame, but ultimately decided against it. The jock had limited their interactions strictly to schoolwork, and Itachi didn't want to come off as desperate (or worse, social). Besides, if Kisame wanted to talk with him like a friend, not a tutor, he surely would've texted something by now, right? The jock was the one who had asked for his number in the first place, after all, so-

"Guys, seriously!" Shisui snapped, voice rising in volume to a level that Itachi knew was reserved for when his cousin had exhausted his last ounce of patience. "We've got tonight and tomorrow to study for this test, and if we flunk it we're screwed! C'mon, let's just get through the damn study guide."

Ikki and something-that-starts-with-an-"M" stared at Shisui for a few moments, while Itachi tried very hard to look like he was distracted by a program on his graphing calculator. Finally Ikki muttered a "Sorry, Shisui," that the other student echoed a moment later. The younger Uchiha waved them off and turned to his cousin, giving Itachi an apologetic look. "So, you were showing us how to calculate the acceleration, right?"

Several hours later, after all the problems on the study guide had been solved and (more or less) efficiently explained, Shisui and Itachi took their leave from Ikki's house and walked towards Itachi's car. The pair of them were silent as they walked down the driveway, entered the vehicle, and got buckled in. It was only once they'd pulled out of the driveway and onto the main road that Shisui showed any reaction to what had transpired earlier. He sighed and doubled over, head held in his hands as a slew of curses left his mouth. Itachi said nothing, choosing instead to let his cousin vent his frustrations thoroughly before anything else. "Fuck, I really shouldn't have done that," Shisui grumbled several minutes later, sitting back up and letting his head fall back against the headrest of his seat with an audible 'thump.' "Ikki and Martin were just goofing around like always. I didn't need to go off on them."

"You tried to be nice," Itachi offered, not entirely sure what to say. "They just didn't listen to you. You had to be firm."

"Did I really?" Shisui questioned. "I'm their friend, not their parent. If they didn't want to focus, you and I could've just ducked out and finished studying at home. They'd whine, but at least things wouldn't be fucking awkward as shit between us now."

"You wouldn't have done that," Itachi countered. "You're too nice."

Shisui rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but you're enough of a hardass that fooling around this time would guarantee no help during midterms, and _that's_ what I've got to worry about." He sighed, propping one arm against the window as he slumped down in his seat. "You mind stopping to get food?"

"Where?"

"I dunno, just somewhere with fries and drinks that are fizzy and full of caffeine."

"That's literally every fast food restaurant ever."

"Fine, that place," Shisui grumbled, pointing to a notoriously greasy burger joint just ahead of them when they came to a stop at a red light. "I want the biggest thing of fries they've got on the menu." Itachi nodded, deciding that fast food sounded like a pretty good idea right now; working on calculus for hours tended to build up quite an appetite.

Ten minutes later the pair of them were chowing down in Itachi's car, Shisui shoveling fries into his mouth as quickly as he could, whereas Itachi was quietly nibbling a small burger that he'd gotten to tide himself over until he got home. Both teens had sodas resting in the center console, and Shisui had also gotten an iced tea for later that evening. "Hey, Itachi?" he asked after downing another handful of fries.

"Hn?"

"You ever worry about what all this studying is doing to us?"

Itachi quirked a brow at his cousin. "What do you mean?"

Shisui took a sip of his soda, clearly thinking about how he wanted to word his statement to Itachi. "I dunno, it's just, I remember when you and I studied for school together and it was tough, but at least we kind of had fun with it. It was like hey, let's read this book and then take a test and go play outside for recess afterwards, right? But now we have to read ten books for one report and the tests are all about making sure we can do even more advanced shit in college, and everyone keeps comparing their rankings to one another or trying to figure out who's got the better job lined up over the summer, and…why? Like, why are we bothering with any of this?"

"We're trying to get into a good college, and then a good job afterwards," Itachi stated, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Yeah, but would it really be the end of the world if you or I didn't get into the absolutely best college in the world?" Shisui asked as he took another bite of French fry. "Or if we just started to work at an average company? I mean, for fuck's sake Itachi, we're 17! I can't even vote, so why do I have to have a comprehensive 10-year plan for my life?!"

Itachi shot his cousin a concerned look. "Where's all this coming from?"

Shisui's eyes were now firmly glued to the window, and he was focused on the passing buildings as they drove by. "Nowhere, really. Just…this can't be right. It doesn't feel right, you know?" he chuckled. "Well, maybe it feels all right to brainiacs like you, but for average students like me, I keep hoping that there's something else, that the world actually isn't going to fall down around my ears if I finish up high school with a 3.3 instead of a 4.0 GPA. Because frankly, if life depends on me being on top of the intellectual pyramid and somehow finagling my way into a top-tier college to land a top-tier job, without relying on our family's connections, I'm pretty screwed."

Silence followed Shisui's statement. Itachi tried to process everything that his cousin had said, desperately hoping to come up with something to say. The weasel had never been good with coming up with comforting words on the spot; that was one of those skills he'd probably need to read a self-help book on, come to think of it. "Shisui-"

"Don't," the teen replied, eyes still looking out the window. "I'm not looking for advice or answers, promise. I just needed someone to vent to, and you're probably the only one that really understands how crazy things are for people like us."

"Is that why you snapped earlier?"

Shisui shrugged, grabbing his soda to take another drink. "Maybe. Ikki and Martin know that they need to do well in school to survive, but I don't think it's quite sunk in with them yet that by this time next year, we'll have applied to whatever colleges we're looking at and need to think about getting the last little bit of college credit we can out of whatever advanced courses we're taking. I keep telling them, but it never sticks." Shisui sighed as he set his drink back down. "I owe them both a major apology. Probably some free food too."

"They'll forgive you," Itachi said, mostly because he knew that's what people were supposed to say in these kinds of situations. "They're your friends."

Shisui rolled his eyes. "You sound like my mother. And on that note…"

Itachi had just pulled up into Shisui's driveway and was now shifting the car into park so his cousin could hop out. Shisui swung his backpack onto one shoulder and grabbed his two drinks, the French fry container lying forgotten on the floorboard of the car for now. "Thanks Itachi. I should be good for the test, but…"

"Call me if you need help," Itachi offered, making Shisui smile in relief. The younger Uchiha had always had hang-ups about asking for help (one of the side effects of being part of the Uchiha family) so it was easier for them both if Itachi was the one to offer it in the end. Shisui slammed the door and waved to his cousin, calling out a final farewell before he disappeared inside the house.

Once Shisui was safely inside, Itachi backed down the driveway and glanced at the car's clock. 8:45. Considering that he'd been at Sasori and Deidara's place all last night and hadn't seen anyone when he swung by for clothes earlier that day, he probably needed to head home and prove to his family that he was still alive and breathing. That didn't prevent him from taking a slight detour that added an extra twenty minutes onto his driving time, however. Besides, Itachi had earned the right to have a little break.

By the time he got home, the lights were already out. His parents were likely in bed by now, and Sasuke was almost definitely staying over at a friend's place. Despite not being much more social than his older brother, Sasuke had somehow managed to become quite popular among the students at his school, and was rarely seen staying home for the weekend. Their parents were reasonably happy; it had been quite apparent early on that Sasuke lacked Itachi's extraordinary talents for all things scholastic, so he'd be relying on officer positions in a variety of clubs and student societies to help beef up his resume in the future. Itachi tried not to dwell on those thoughts too much; Sasuke was still a few years removed from the pressure their family would inevitably put on his shoulders to get those positions, so there was no point in Itachi sulking over it now.

Instead, the teen walked into the kitchen and tossed a bag of popcorn into the microwave. Once it was done, he went upstairs to his room, grabbed his laptop, and plopped down on the bed. His headphones were in a drawer in his nightstand; he took them out as soon as he was settled and plugged them in to the computer. Realistically, his parents were fairly heavy sleepers, but he didn't want to risk them waking up in the middle of the night and giving him a lecture about why he should already be asleep.

He browsed through a couple of different videos online before finally settling on a documentary about the discovery of DNA and RNA. Realistically this material wasn't going to appear on any test in the near future (he wasn't even going to be enrolled in college biology until next fall) and the documentary was probably presenting the information on a rather basic and elementary level compared to what Itachi needed to know, but it was still a nice refresher course. Besides, Itachi had always been a fan of documentaries, and it was nice to watch one for fun instead of for a class.

He finished the documentary in a little under an hour and then immediately switched over to another one on viruses. He got about halfway through that one, when his phone suddenly lit up (and may have startled him badly enough to send a few kernels of popcorn flying across his bed). Frankly, he hadn't been expecting anyone to text him this late; Shisui was probably in the middle of one of his online games, and both Deidara and Sasori usually liked to have a quiet night in after Sasori's grandma Chiyo visited. Who was texting, then? He picked up the phone and raised a brow when the caller I.D. read "Kisame." Curious, he opened the text. " _Ooooh my goooood_ "

Now even more confused, Itachi texted back a simple, " _?_ "

There was a pause, before another text popped up. " _Oops. Sorry, didn't mean to text you!_ "

At that point, Itachi should have sent back a simple, " _Ok_ ," and let the matter drop. Unfortunately for Itachi, his curiosity got the better of him, and instead he asked, " _Is everything all right_?"

The pause was longer this time, and Itachi began to feel stupid for asking. He was just Kisame's tutor; they'd met exactly once and barely had what could be considered a text conversation after that, so the jock was under no obligation to talk with him about anything except school work (which Itachi was pretty sure had not been the impetus for this most recent text). Just as the Uchiha was beginning a fresh round of self-berating, Kisame finally texted back. " _Let's just say that if the rest of the season goes as bad as the game did tonight, it won't matter if you tutor me well enough to stay on the team_."

Just to make sure that he didn't come off as desperate or lonely, Itachi waited exactly 90 seconds before texting back this time. " _Surely it can't be that bad_."

Kisame took a while to text back, but when Itachi saw the length of the message he could understand why. " _Imagine looking at a train wreck. Now imagine the train tracks under that wreck are on fire. Now imagine that the wrecked train is full of the damned of hell, complete with weeping and gnashing teeth. That's what us playing was like_."

Itachi's brow was raised so high it was practically in his hairline. " _Poetic. Are you sure you need my help with writing_?"

" _Lol, creative writing's easy. I just have trouble trying to take apart stories and make sensible essays out of it. Plus texting lets me be a little more gorey with imagery. Also I might be kind of drunk_."

Itachi frowned at that, but tried to reign in his judgement as much as possible when he replied. " _Should you be admitting that in any kind of writing_?"

A pause. For a moment, Itachi thought Kisame might be angry at him. " _It's fine_ ," is what the jock finally texted back. " _As long as you don't turn me in, no one will ever know. And you wouldn't rat me out, right_?"

Here, Itachi smirked and didn't even bother waiting before he replied. " _Of course not. I'd be out of a job then_."

" _lol_."

Itachi shook his head at the short reply and set his phone down, presuming that the conversation was over. He went back to his documentary, nibbling on the last few handfuls of popcorn still in his bag. A few minutes later, however, he received another text from Kisame. " _You still awake_?" it read.

" _Yes_ ," he replied.

" _Awesome. Look, seriously, we're awful. Like, to the point where I'm thinking it would probably be a good idea for me to do a little extra tutoring with you so I can end up in at least a couple advanced classes next year, seriously, no one on this team's getting a scholarship the way we're going. Playoff material we are not. Can you do tomorrow night? I don't remember how paying you works, if you bill the company or whatever, but I can give you food or some shit if that'd work_."

That…was a lot of word vomit. Itachi half-expected an apology to come through right after, but after a few minutes he realized that Kisame was quite serious. The jock was drunkenly yet sincerely asking the Uchiha for additional help with his school work.

Frankly, Itachi should have turned him down, politely yet firmly. If not that, Itachi should have just shut his phone off and waited until morning to see if Kisame would retract his request after he sobered up. At worst, Itachi could have contacted the tutoring company and asked to have Kisame transferred to someone else. Any of these options would have saved the Uchiha a lot of confusion, frustration, and pain in the coming months. But Itachi didn't do any of these things. Instead, he simply asked what time, was told 3 p.m. and given Kisame's street address (lucky, he'd forgotten it), and replied, " _All right, I'll see you then_."


End file.
